Cameroon Football: Uncertainty shrouds MTN Elite 1 & 2 Kick-off

Cameroon’s ministry of sports has requested the over 50 sporting federations to launch activities for the new sports season between January 20 and March 31, 2018.

The deadline is contained in a release signed on the 19th of January, by the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Pierre Ishmael Bidoung Mpkatt. 

The communiqué was published a day to an initial date set to launch MTN Elite 1 and 2 championships, which did not finally take place. Most sports and football lovers have been wondering why the kick-off was postponed yet again.

Sports pundits have divergent views on the postponement of the kick-off to Cameroon’s topflight football. The MTN Elite 1 and 2 campaigns have suffered two postponements after they were programmed to take off, first in December 2017 and later the weekend of 20th and 21st January, 2018.

A school of thought argues that the delay has a lot to do with the normalization process at the Cameroon Football Federation-FECAFOOT. This group of pundits believes that the normalization committee would be shooting itself in the leg if it goes ahead to launch the professional league when work is unfinished. Don’t forget they called off regional and divisional leagues late last year.

Another school of thought posits that the leagues didn’t swing into action last weekend because the stadia in Limbe and Buea had been reserved for the CAF Inspection Mission. 

This group of pundits contends that the financial support which ought to trickle from Sponsors and the government to clubs, is yet to be given, coupled with the late acquisition of access codes to the Fifa new license system.

According to an interview published in the January 19 edition of Cameroon Tribune, the Secretary General of the Professional League of Cameroon, Thérèse Pauline Manguele, the delay can be blamed largely on the arguments advanced by the second school of thought.  

Pauline Manguele who said the League had been 60% ready for the launch added that the list of referees to officiate the new season is not yet out.

Officials have confirmed that 18 teams will constitute MTN Elite 1, while MTN Elite 2 involves 15 instead of 18, given that qualifiers into the Elite 2 did not take place. Even though some of the reasons advanced for the delay are tangible, records show that hardly have officials respected deadlines talkless of kick-off dates.

As I speak, the South African Premier League is at the 18th day of play. In Nigeria, the league is aiming for the 4th day of play having started on the 3rd of January, 2018. Clubs registered for the current football season in Ghana have already played 30 games each.  Algeria are at the 17th while DR Congo count 10 days of play.

Perhaps the dismal performance of Cameroon’s local players at the ongoing CHAN in Morocco is clear proof that mediocrity is what you get from systemic dysfunctionality.